Summary: Diego meets a female tiger one day while he hunts, a female tiger that seems determined to make Diego fall for a certain Sloth…

Warnings: OCCness, Slash, Swearing, Violence

Parings: Diego/OC, Diego/Sid, some Ellie/Manny

Disclaimer: I don't own Ice Age or any of its characters but I do own Kayka.

Day One

Diego crouched silently in the snow, staring at his prey just a few feet away from him nosing at the ground for food though Diego was hardly paying attention to it for he was slightly irritated because his 'Herd' didn't understand his need for meat. And that's what you get for traveling with a sloth, two mammoths, and two opossums, Diego thought grumpily, while still looking, more like glaring, at his meal. I mean they know I'm a carnivore so why did they have to give me such funny looks the last time I ate in front of them? I mean I have to watch them eat. Growling slightly Diego quickly glanced back up at his prey for he had just then realized that he had downcast his green eyes while he was thinking only to see quite a bemusing sight.

"About time you looked up," Said a female tiger that was lying quite casually on top of the dead carcass of Diego's prey. Diego blinked twice to get over his shock. When? How? Were the only words running through Diego's mind.

"Who the hell are you?" Diego finally demanded after finding his voice. The female tiger grinned at him; showing off even more white teeth then what was already displayed.

"My name for the moment is Kayka, what is yours?" Kayka asked.

"Diego and that meat you are sitting on top of is rightfully mine," Diego said. Kayka looked down at the carcass she was still lying on before looking up at Diego, her grin still in place and her odd blue eyes twinkling with secret amusement.

"Really? I was the one that had killed it," Kayka said.

"I was hunting it before you," Diego hissed. This time Kayka cocked her head at him.

"But you were taking so long to attack it so I thought that it was free game," Kayka said, calmly and maybe a little mockingly.

"Well it wasn't," Diego muttered, grumpily. Kayka raised an eyebrow at him.

"Are you going to fight me for it?" Kayka asked, her narrowing though her posture remained relaxed. Diego blinked, taken aback. What is this tiger up to? Diego wondered.

"If I have to…" Diego said, though he sounded unsure. Kayka tilted her head to the other side now, her eyes thoughtful.

"Well how about this, if I share with you, you will take me with you to your pack," Kayka said. Diego snorted, still a little flustered but quickly getting over it.

"You wouldn't like my pack even if I took you to see them," Diego said, before looking around. "Besides where is your pack?"

Kayka stared at him for a quite awhile before standing up and jumping quite gracefully off of the carcass.

"I don't have a pack," Kayka said, dryly.

"And what if I don't have a pack?" Diego asked.

"Then you are going to starve tonight," Kayka said, amused, just as Diego's stomach growled showing him how irritated it was with him for arguing with this female and not feeding it.

"Fine," Diego mumbled, slightly annoyed that he had had to concede, and brushed almost violently past Kayka before taking a huge bite out of the carcass. Kayka turned around to look at the tiger in front of her and another grin appeared on her furred face. She will probably run away the moment she meets my 'pack' anyway, Diego thought between bites. And if she doesn't I can always get Manny and Ellie to chase her away. He was so deep in his thoughts and satisfying his own hunger that Diego didn't even notice that Kayka made no move to eat any of the meat with him nor did he notice that there were no wounds to be found anywhere on the body.

***

"Sid, move one more time and I swear I will pummel you," Manny said, raising his trunk threateningly into an attack position.

"Sheesh, I was just worried about Diego," Sid muttered trying once more to get into a comfortable position, ignoring Manny's trunk. It had been at least three hours since the only carnivore of their herd had gone without saying a word, even though the entire herd knew where he was going, and Sid was starting to get worried with his mask of laziness slightly cracking because of it.

"Don't worry Sid, I am sure he is just fine," Ellie said, from where she was lying next to Manny, trying to reassure the sloth.

"He's fine," said Crash, appearing out of nowhere, with somewhat sarcasm in his voice.

"Fine, fine," echoed Eddie, who had appeared next to his brother. Sid sighed, grudgingly knowing that what they said was true. Diego was fine and there was no way he wouldn't be fine… well… unless he fell into a river somewhere Sid found himself thinking with a smile crossing his lips, amusing himself by referring to Diego's old fear. The others on the other hand seemed to take Sid's smile for something else for they stopped trying to reassure him that Diego was fine and went back to their own activities. Sid did not mind however for to him it did not matter if they continued or not.

***

"How long are you going to follow me?" Diego asked halting suddenly with annoyance clear in his voice, his green eyes meeting blue as Kayka stopped as well. Kayka however, instead of responding, merely showed him one of her grins, which were already starting to become famous, and stood there watching him until Diego finally began moving again, sighing in aggravation. He had after all been hoping that Kayka would have lost interest in meeting his 'pack' before he was finished eating but obviously that had not come true.

"Is that your pack?" Kayka asked suddenly, making Diego come out of his thoughts and looked in front of him. Sure enough he could see their small campfire, which the 'Lord of the Flames' (Sid) had produced.

"That is my 'Herd'," Diego said, finally deciding to correct her. If Kayka heard him however she made no acknowledgement to it since she merely continued to stare intently at Diego's herd while Diego, seemingly not upset at Kayka not responding to him, scanned Kayka's face for the expected surprise which did not come. In fact the expression of secret amusement once more crossed Kayka's face.

"D-do you still want to meet them?" Diego asked, momentarily thrown off in surprise at Kayka's unexpected reaction. Kayka finally glanced at him.

"Of course," Kayka said, a slight look of confusion in her eyes that replaced the amusement. "Why wouldn't I?" she asked.

"Because they are not Tigers?" Diego asked in return. Kayka merely half-shrugged.

"Don't be ashamed, after all they are your family right?" Kayka said. Diego blinked and then a small smile rarely seen crossed his muzzle.

"Yeah they are," Diego said, looking upon his herd fondly. Kayka grinned.

"Then I want to meet them," Kayka said. Diego stared silently into those impossible blue eyes that should have changed to green or yellow a couple of months after her birth before turning around once more and walking towards his 'Herd'. Kayka followed him, the amusement in her eyes back in place.

***

The moment Sid saw Diego coming towards them he jumped to his feet with a goofy grin on his face which only lasted until he saw the female tiger walking beside Diego. Manny, Ellie, Crash, and Eddie were also staring at the female tiger as the two of them came into the fire circle, the female staring quite openly back at all of them.

"Umm… this is Kayka," Diego said as he adverted his green gaze to the ground, momentarily embarrassed by his entire herd staring at them. Kayka grinned at all of them.

"Hi, as Diego said my name is Kayka," Kayka said. Manny seemed the first to get over the shock of their Diego bringing home a female tiger for he spoke.

"Nice to meet you Kayka, I am Manfred or Manny for short," Manny said. Kayka nodded politely at Manny before allowing her blue eyes to wander over to the other mammoth and her 'brothers'.

"I'm Ellie," Ellie said, as if Kayka looking at her had given her some invisible invitation, before nodding towards her 'Brothers'. "And these are my brothers, Eddie and Crash," Ellie added. Kayka glanced at the opossums and if she was surprised by a mammoth referring to opossums as 'Brothers' she did not show it and merely narrowed her eyes at the identical evils grins on their faces. She then made a low growl in her throat that startled everyone including to opossums.

"Try attacking me with those sticks and rocks behind your backs and you will regret it," Kayka said in a cheerful but threatening voice, her sharp nails extending threateningly. Crash and Eddie looked dumbfounded as they dropped the sticks and rocks they had used on Diego and Sid the first time they had met them. Satisfied that they weren't going to attack her Kayka then withdrew her claws and turned away from the opossums who were mumbling to themselves while giving Kayka dark looks, finally landing her eyes on the last remaining member of Diego's herd who hadn't spoken at all since she and Diego had arrived. Sid. Their eyes met and clashed with each other with an unspoken need for victory.

"What is your name?" Kayka asked in a low voice.

"Sid, why are you here?" Sid asked. Kayka stared silently at him for a moment and Diego felt scared for the tense air about them. Manny shifted slightly telling all that he also felt the tenseness. Finally Kayka broke into a grin once more.

"I haven't seen anybody for awhile and when I met Diego I wanted to see what kind of animals he travels with," Kayka said. Sid crossed his furry arms across his chest and narrowed his black eyes at her.

"Well you met us," Sid said, his voice slightly rude which made everyone in the herd almost collapse with shock for this wasn't the Sid they knew. Kayka was staring at Sid again, though this time with an unreadable look in her eyes. Diego wondered if she wanted to eat him much like Diego, himself, had wanted to do when he had first met the sloth. And then, suddenly, Kayka turned her back to Sid and looked at Diego.

"I am going to leave now," Kayka said, her expression quite blank, and then without a further ado started walking away from them.

"Wait," Diego said, automatically. Kayka stopped and looked over her shoulder at the other tiger.

"Where are you going to sleep tonight?" He asked. Kayka snickered.

"Wherever," Kayka said, nonchalantly.

"Don't you have a pack?" Ellie asked, looking at the female tiger in surprise. She doesn't have a pack, Diego thought as Kayka voiced it.

"No I don't," Kayka said.

"Well then why don't you stay here for the night?" Manny asked. Kayka tilted her head at the mammoth but made no move to agree or disagree to the offer.

"Maybe that isn't such a good idea," Sid said, speaking up. Everyone, including Kayka, looked over at the sloth.

"And why not?" Manny asked once again surprised at Sid's sudden descent into anti-social behavior.

"Because we don't know her intentions," Sid said, all but glaring at the 'suspicious' Tiger. Diego glanced at Manny and their eyes met, thinking the same thing: since when has Sid been suspicious of anyone?

"Well we didn't know what Ellie and her brother's true intentions were when we first met them and you forcefully invited them to come with us," Manny said, ignoring his mate's glare.

"But that was different," Sid said.

"How so?" Diego asked.

"She's a carnivore," Sid said.

"So? I'm a carnivore too," Diego said, frowning, a stab of pain needling at his heart.

"That's different too," Sid responded. Kayka seemed to become suddenly fed up with this conversation.

"How about I just leave?" Kayka asked all of them. The herd all turned to look at her.

"No, you can stay if you want to," Manny said before giving a piercing glare at Sid before the said sloth could protest. "How about we call this revenge for you inviting Ellie and her brothers?" Manny asked only to get hit in the head by Ellie's trunk.

"But some good came out of that," Sid murmured, defeated though still angry. Everyone on the other hand ignored him as they gathered around the circle of fire. Sid glared at the new intrusion, his feelings hurt that no one listened to him, but especially hurt to the fact that Diego had protected her. Even so he was happy when Diego lied down next to him while the female tiger lied down closer to Manny. Sid smirked at Kayka as if to say 'Ha ha I got him and you don't' and if Kayka was bothered by this she didn't show it since all she did was grin back as she closed her eyes to 'sleep'.

However a couple of minutes later her eyes were open again and as Kayka yawned she looked around the 'Herd' that had been kind to her before settling her eyes on Diego and Sid. Sid was snoring slightly with his mouth open wide for the world to see and Kayka couldn't help but notice how he was leaning against Diego. A secret grin reached Kayka's muzzle and her blue eyes sparkled. It was all going according to her plan and for that she was content for the moment.